Living by Theory
by EireannisInnocent
Summary: Saku-centric: Follows Sakura's childhood as she travels the world and strives to learn from the theories left by her many teachers. Her goal to become someone worth something.
1. Chapter 1

Prologue

A young girl sat alone in her room reading a book. She sat beneath her window, reading by the light that flooded in. The five-year-old decided to seclude herself like this because whenever she went outside to try to play with other children they made fun of her.

For a good reason, too, she had decided. She was the only person in her village of Konoha that had pink hair and a supposedly huge forehead. This had gone on for a long time due to her natural persistence but she had eventually resigned herself to this fate.

It didn't seem to matter what she did to fit in or make friends. She fawned over the same boys as the other girls did, only to be put down. She worried about how she looked and always left her house in the best condition possible. But still none of the other girls would willingly talk to her. She felt she was without hope.

Her parents were worried by their daughter's sudden withdrawal from socializing. They worried about her becoming completely anti-social and tried to comfort her. They saw what their daughter didn't see, the other girls' blatant envy. Sakura had unknowingly attracted other boys' attention, which with that attraction brought the girls unwanted fury.

As the days passed by the other girls fury grew until it had driven Sakura into being reclusive to avoid their anger. Sakura's parents continued to worry and their encouragements started to fail at getting their daughter out of bed everyday. Sakura, the young girl who could have anything in the world, became a sickly and depressed young girl.

Until her parents came up with a plan. The Haruno family was a wealthy clan of traveling merchants, and so the family had business to do in other countries. Usually they left Sakura with her grandparents but they had an upcoming merchant trip to some of the neighboring countries for a few years.

So their plan was to bring Sakura along for the trip to the countries of Stone, Mist, and Sand.

"So Sakura, you are aware that we, your father and I, have an upcoming merchant trip to the Stone, Mist and Sand villages." Said Sakura's mother.

"…" Sakura remained silent in reply.

"We would usually leave you with your grandparents, but because of the length of the trip we have decided to bring you with us."

"…Why?"

"We will be gone for more than a year, possibly several. With your present condition we don't want to leave you for any long period of time. Especially with this trip's indefinite length."

"…"

"So you are going to pack all of your bags tonight and we will leave the village early tomorrow morning."

"Okay…"

"If you have anyone you wish to say goodbye to, please, do it by the end of today."

"We all know I have no one to say goodbye to, Mother." Sakura answered depressed.

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At the Uchiha Compound the Next Day

"Sasuke, you have a female friend waiting for you outside." Yelled a cheerful Mikoto from the kitchen.

"Yes mother." Answered an equally excited Sasuke, who thought the person at the door was someone he had been waiting to see for a long time.

He hoped it was Sakura. The pink haired girl had been around before and though she would fawn over him like the other girls, she didn't over do it. She was quiet when she complemented him and never tackled him but instead occasionally asked for a hug and would wait for permission. He liked the way she treated him, he wasn't placed on a pillar to gawk at or expected to live up to knightly expectations. He could simply be himself around Sakura.

The young boy could be seen scurrying outside with a hopeful look on his face. As he skidded around a corner, he quickly skirted around his older brother. Only to be immediately halted by his brother's words.

"It isn't Sakura if that's who you're hoping for, Sasuke."

"Then who is it?" Asked a confused Sasuke, suddenly cautious of whether he wanted to answer to the visitor's summons for him.

The gate to their right burst open and a loud blonde ran inside tackling the younger boy.

"Sasuke!" She squealed, one of Sasuke's ever-present and unwanted fan girls, in a high pitched tone.

"Save me, Itachi!" Cried out the slowly suffocating boy in the arms of his insane stalker. His only hope of escape was quickly exiting the compound to leave him there to defend himself.

The older boy just continued to walk on, smiling or more so smirking as he left his brother with a small reminder.

"Uchiha men aren't supposed to beg their enemies for mercy."

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Ichiraku's Ramen

A loud blonde boy burst into the small ramen booth. He set down on an empty stool and greeted the owner. The elderly man who owned the shop and his young teenage daughter welcomed the boy who had come every day for several years.

At the ramen shop the boy knew he would be welcomed. Everyone else in the village shunned him for a reason everyone but he, himself, knew.

Everyone but Naruto, the boy, knew he was the container of a great demon that had attacked the village 5 years ago. They all treated him the same except for the ramen shop owners and a certain pink haired girl.

Sakura had been lonely and still was, which encouraged him to try and help her. She simply continued to recoil when he would approach her and retreat into her house again. But when she was feeling courageous, she would treat him to ramen, and though they wouldn't talk, they still understood each other. Though Naruto still preferred to talk out loud, he still understood her answers. He would make sure she was happy, it just felt like what he needed to do around her.

"One big tonktsu ramen, old man." Naruto cried out excitedly.

"Coming up." Answered the old man across the counter.

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At an ANBU Training Field

Two blurs moved through the air, metallic clinks and clanks accompanying their movements. To the normal eye it seemed high level ninja were just training but to any Uchiha Member it was clear their two best prodigies were having an all out battle between each other.

To each other it wasn't just lighthearted training between family or best friends but a competition of two equally matched rivals. They weren't out to murder each other (even though for the Uchiha family the definition of "kill" could easily mistaken for "training mishap.") Each cousin simply knew they weren't going to kill each other but that didn't mean they weren't against putting each other in the ICU at the hospital either.

Itachi always found a competition presented by Shisui. Itachi had never been the competitive sort and preferred to work than compete. But when Shisui had attacked him during one of his training sessions he felt like taking out some stress on Shisui. It was something he did rarely but today had been too much.

Now he was fighting Shisui, but his mind was elsewhere, another rare thing to happen. Of course he was always thinking about something but he was normally acutely focused on the task at hand. His mind was on the topic he had accidentally overheard while walking by the Hokage's office. The Harunos were leaving again, this time bringing their daughter, Sakura.

This was the girl that left his little brother happy and smiling whenever she would come over. For a small while she had come over to their house every day following the cruel orders of her so-called friends. It didn't take too long for her friends to notice Sasuke actually enjoyed her company and how the Uchiha actually welcomed her into their homes. (Mainly Mikoto, Sasuke, and himself.) And how she was treated unlike the other girls.

The others would always squeal or tackle hug the two brothers. Sakura was quiet, intelligent, glad to help anyone, and was surprisingly nice to hold a conversation with. Sakura only lacked self-esteem and was easily put down. That was why she didn't come outside often anymore, she had finally given up.

To think that she was leaving saddened Itachi for some reason. The reason was unidentifiable but he quickly shrugged it off, to leave it for later.

Short chapter, `cause it's an introduction. Second chapter will follow immediately after this one so no wait for my lazy and slow updates for now.

**Note this is my first attempt to write a non-AU fanfiction. But you also have to think that any fanfiction isn't truly non-AU because it isn't the original series, and isn't written by the original author.**

**Another note as the topic of original author comes up, I do not own Naruto the series, characters, or the original storyline (which has gone down the friggin' drain since Itachi was killed off by the duck-butt haired gay-sauce.) The previous comment does not mean there will not be any SasuSaku in the future chapters and nor will there be any Sasuke bashing (well, maybe a little bit. Microscopic proportions.)**

**Please review and continue to read my other stories. **

**I'm sorry I haven't updated recently, multiple virus problems yet again and I am currently typing this on this computer without any virus protection at all so…yeah more delay might be coming up soon. Sorry `bout that.**

**Also I have found what I had lost for "Sakura in Wonderland" so that should come up soon too.**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 1

Trip to Suna

It was early dawn and my mother had dragged me out of my warm and comfy bed. I had grabbed my small bag I had packed last night and prepared to leave Konoha for a long time.

Funny as it was, I was unsure how to feel about leaving. Of course, we would eventually come back but this was my home. I was sure I was supposed to feel some sort of sadness for leaving without a goodbye.

On one hand this was where those girls bullied me. I had tried to fit in with them, and had done everything they asked me to do from sneaking into the Uchiha compound to talking to Neji Hyuuga.

I had always been afraid of the Uchiha compound until Sasuke had found me. Surprisingly Sasuke hadn't gotten upset with me, probably because I hadn't stolen his shirt yet. We later became what I could guess could be considered friends.

Sasuke was lonely when his brother was too busy to train with him but he definitely didn't want girls drooling over him every single second.

Then after I was sent to the Uchiha compound again by the girls, I met Itachi. At first I was afraid of him, but I saw Sasuke run up to him and hug him happily. So I eventually grew used to Itachi's rare but comforting presence. On the occasion, Sasuke was out somewhere without Itachi, then Itachi would walk and talk with me. It was nice to have someone older than you to look to besides your parents.

Itachi had also cared enough to teach me a few jutsu, that to be truthful I never truly mastered but did take notes on, and I knew then I could always look up to him.

There was also when I met Naruto. He was loud and noisy but never refused to speak his mind. I met him at the ramen shop and he went out of his way to make me laugh after the girls put me down. He eventually developed a way for us to communicate, I being someone who preferred not to talk, he would talk then watch for a response from me and we would be satisfied that way.

I realized that I would miss the village. I was born here, of course, but I had friends. Well, that was how I thought of them, but considering how I recently had become Miss Konoha Social Recluse. They probably didn't agree with me at all.

"Sakura, we're leaving now!" Yelled my father from the front door. "Please come down here!"

I slid off my bed and walked over to my door. I looked around at my room for one last time, not knowing when I would see it next. I scurried down the stairs to where my parents were waiting by the door.

We would mostly walk to Suna since I had only just started ninja school and didn't really know how to climb trees without using my hands. Actually my parents were civilians, and weren't sure whether they wanted me to become a ninja or not, because it was such a difficult and dangerous profession. Since they were from civilian families and not ninja clans with some ultra powerful ability I wasn't expected to do anything great in my life besides be a heir-bringer.

It wasn't that I didn't like the idea of not being a kid from a ninja clan like Sasuke or Itachi but I wanted to do something useful in my life. I wanted to be someone other than a useless trophy wife; I wanted to be important and needed by someone. I wanted to find my niche in life.

It would probably take a few weeks to get to Suna but that didn't bother me by much. It was the fact that we would walk. I was always hoping that one day I would be able to numbly jump from tree to tree like an elite ninja. But it would take a lot of work so I studied every day. The down-side to my daily studying was I knew everything in theory since I took notes in my notebook. The actual bad part about it was that I didn't train physically so I didn't have the charka reserves to do anything epic, no matter what sort of stuff I knew.

In other words I was absolutely useless should anyone attack us.

I could only hope nothing would happen on our way to Suna…

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Suna

"We're finally here!" I shouted to the sky in a hoarse voice because of the dry sand that had caked the insides of my throat.

My parents continued to walk past me into the market district already knowing where they were headed. I followed absentmindedly while looking around at the city's tall sandstone walls and buildings. The occasional wooden shutter or two with some of them open with clothes drying out on a line, which went from building to building. It sort of reminded of streamers at a festival.

I looked ahead and saw my parents far ahead of me apparently also caught in their own little world. I quickly ran after them and caught up.

"So where are we going?" I asked.

"It's nice to see you're becoming active again Sakura." Commented my mother happily. "We have to see the Kazekage first then we'ii know how long we're staying here."

"So don't go running off, Sakura." Added my father, always the protective one.

"Oh, she isn't going to do that. She knows better." Replied my mother once again beginning a conversation with my father.

They were always like that, not exactly two young lovers that ignored their own child but still I never really liked talking with them. They would always try and talk me out of something, like being a ninja, or try to get me to become like a normal little civilian girl. It was another reason I wanted to become a ninja so badly, my parents refused to see I didn't want to be physically delicate and unable to take care of myself on my own.

My parents then went off into a small squabble about whether I was responsible enough to be left at home. I was going to turn six next week and it seemed neither of them were going to remember at all.

We eventually reached the Kazekage's tower. It was located in the center of the village, much like ours. Except the village seemed to be more guards here than with our Hokage's tower. Maybe the Kazekage was in some sort of trouble?

My parents quickly entered and knocked on the door to be let in. I quietly followed them into the circular and plainly decorated room. The Kazekage sat on a tatami mat in the center of the room. The two children by his side, I immediately assumed to be his, sat on the very edge of the tatami mat. Guards on either side of their father separated them, so obviously the Kazekage was more concerned about his own well being more than his own children.

For a moment, I took the time to appreciate the fact that my parents wanted to protect me. Even if at times it seemed to be too much.

Their conversation seemed to drone on forever and eventually I grew bored. I soon only caught snippets of the conversation like "merchant", "children", "unofficial trade agreement", and "year."

We quickly left and thanked the Kazekage.

"So how long are we staying here?"

"A year."

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The Next Day

"Sakura we're going to work now. We'll be back for lunch and then at dusk."

There went the super protectiveness of my parents. It flew right out the window along with the common sense of the thought "Never leave a child alone at home near any flammable items." This being the desert nearly everything was flammable.

"Okay."

I heard the door of our tiny apartment click. Then immediately open again.

"Don't set the house on fire! It's okay to go outside though."

Then the door shut again.

I slowly got up and got dressed, preparing for my day alone. I walked into the small kitchen area and grabbed the small breakfast left for me.

I left the apartment and locked it behind me, taking a set of keys with me. I decided I would simply walk to the park I saw yesterday. I wasn't very sure about leaving the house but I knew I would eventually find my way back.

I quickly arrived at the park and sat down on a bench. I didn't really know what I expected to do until I heard the chain swings squeak from behind me. Which meant someone had to be here, or there was just a really strong gust of sandy wind, but there wasn't any wind blowing at the moment.

I turned and saw a red-haired boy with a raw marking on the upper left side of his forehead. It was red and crusted over with his blood. I absentmindedly thought about how it could easily become infected with these dust filled winds.

I hadn't realized that I had walked over to where he was sitting to look at the symbol. It was somewhat entrancing in a sickening way. I slowly recognized the symbol as being Chinese, and it took a moment for me to remember what it meant. It was the symbol for "ai", for "love."

What brought me back to reality was the sense of tension in the air, which came rushing down around me. Then I didn't do anything but continue to stare, until I began to hear something. I looked around curious to what it was and it turned out that the air surrounding us was buzzing with grains of sand.

The sand floated around us as if it had its own will to move only in a certain direction. It seemed to come from the red-haired boy, something I had never seen before. I slowly dawned on the conclusion that this boy had the ability to become a ninja, since I knew ninja were able to manipulate the elements easily and were able to do many things civilians would consider impossible.

"How are you doing that?" I asked, amazed by his ability.

He stayed silent but a look of surprise flashed across his mainly blank face.

"W-what?"

"How do you control the sand? It looks so cool. I've never seen anyone do this before. Not even ninja." I answered.

I could only assume I was being more outgoing because in him I saw a chance to fit in with someone.

"People hate me because I can do this…"

"Why? It's so awesome." I had sat down next to him on another swing.

He still seemed shocked.

"So what's your name?"

"Gaara."

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11 months. That's how long I had lived in Suna. I still had a month to go before we left for the next village. Gaara and I both knew that.

Gaara and I had become friends, at first he was hesitant to trust me but I got a long fine with the trust he gave me. His trust in me eventually grew and I felt special to him as a friend.

He had revealed to me how he had received the mark on his forehead, which had now become a scar over the last few months; one I believe would never leave him. He was the container of the Shikaku, the one tailed demon. He was only meant to be a weapon for the village, until he had become violent towards those who hated him. So his father sent his uncle to kill him and his uncle explained this to him and died, his mission left incomplete. Now Gaara had become anti-social except towards me.

But for my last month in Suna, Gaara wouldn't be with me. He had said his father was taking his siblings and he somewhere for training. When I'd asked for what king of training he'd simply replied "the ninja kind." He didn't seem to be worried to be leaving the village with the person who had sent his own family member to kill him only to fail and die in front of Gaara.

This reminded me of my hopes to become a ninja. When I brought up the idea with Gaara he didn't completely reject it. He agreed it was a good idea, but the fact that I didn't train nor was I attending any schools or working with a sensei would make it much more difficult for me. I had shown him my notebook with all my notes in it and he said all my theories were correct as far as he knew. He was especially amazed by the fact that an Uchiha had taught me a family jutsu, when I had asked why he responded it was rare for any Uchiha to trust an outsider with family secrets.

He'd left quickly after that, he was never much for emotional goodbyes. But I still gave him a surprise hug, which oddly wasn't blocked by a wall of sand, his automatic defense. It was almost as if he was expecting a hug.

Later I began to wonder about becoming a ninja. I had gone to a short-term preparatory school back in Konoha for the basics of ninja training. It didn't teach much but the basics. Everyone attended it but would only truly require it if they planned to pursue being a ninja.

My parents were currently on the fence about the idea of their only daughter pursuing this sort of profession. I asked them about it later and they had shared the same worried look. Their answer was that they would consider it once we got back to Konoha. It wasn't a yes and was likely to turn out to be a no, but I decided I would ignore that fact until we got back.

I had gone to sleep waiting for the next morning because I had plans to work on my taijutsu skills. I couldn't really work on improving my fighting style because I had never officially been taught nor did I know how to truly fight someone. I still wanted to practice kunai and shuriken throwing.

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Early the next morning I left for the Sand villages' training fields.

It took a while but by afternoon I had improved my aim by a lot. At first I missed most shots, but I eventually worked up to five out of every ten shots. I quickly grew impatient at how I wasn't improving by much anymore so I decided to try something else.

I referred to my journal and flipped to the pages I had shown Gaara just yesterday. At the bottom of the page was the skill I was looking for, the first jutsu Itachi had ever explained to me. The fire element grand fireball technique was a jutsu that was taught to all Uchihas. It was rarely seen outside the clan, if at all. Itachi had told me I had excellent charka control and with practice I could master one of the Uchiha's famed techniques. But it was probably mainly just for the purpose of a distraction to get my birthday present that he gave me later on.

I wanted to try it for once, knowing the hand seals Itachi had given for it. The theory was to inhale air and charka that was focused to the mouth, while performing the series of seals, then blow. This was where my studies would always be cut short; I knew what to do but not how to actually do it. But I could try.

I exhaled and got nothing but a few hot embers. I decided to try again and hopefully not over exert my self, knowing how much charka I would probably use.

Sadly my estimates were inaccurate. I had felt slightly fatigued after the first attempt; the second try knocked me out. But not before I had emitted a rather pathetic stream of fire, in the opinion of my quickly fading vision, and fell over.

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Mystery PoV

I would never call it visiting the village. It was where I came from and that was it. No feeling of nostalgia came from seeing Suna again.

I had easily walked past the guards and made it to the greenhouse to steal some of the least commonplace desert herbs only found here. I needed to remake my poison arsenal since killing the last Kazekage and here was the only place that I knew of that had what I was looking for.

I had gotten what I wanted and was preparing to leave. Until I saw a streak of red out of the corner of my eye, in reaction I simply stepped backwards. The projectile turned out to be a large steam of fire from a grand fireball technique. I indulged upon my nearly nonexistent curiosity and turned to see who had attacked.

There was a small form that lay collapsed on the ground. She was unique and young in her appearance, pink hair and she looked no older than 7 at most. The fire seemed to have come from her direction. It was rare to see a young person perform an Uchiha's inanition to adulthood rite especially when the person obviously wasn't an Uchiha.

I wandered over to her limp form and briefly considered her worth as a puppet.

Too young. She would be useless in battle but she has potential with this sort of charka control at an age like this. She can only improve. She might be worthy of teaching something to, if she continued to show potential.

I gathered the unconscious body and quickly disappeared with the freshly risen grains of sand being carried by the wind.

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Sakura POV

I slowly woke up on a hard surface. I had fallen unconscious after my pathetic attempt at a fireball.

I opened my eyes to see stalactites above me. I was in a cave, in the desert, alone.

I gradually got up feeling the gentle burn of yesterday's exercise. A cloak fell off me and settled at my waist. Someone had left me in a cave; I turned my head and saw a canteen with water and a blanket.

I looked towards the entrance and saw nothing but swirling sands outside. I continued to watch until I began to think of Gaara and where he was right now. Then I saw a shadow emerging from the sandy winds.

The shadow was revealed to be a person in a tan cloak, which made him almost disappear with the swirling sands that had surrounded him.

He entered the cave with the remaining sand left to fall of his cloak. He removed his hood and revealed a face I had seen before.

"You're the Scorpion of the Red Sands, Akasuna no Sasori. I've heard of you from Granny Chiyo!" I said as I remembered the old woman who served as one of Suna's village elders. "You're a missing ninja."

"Hmm?"

"She's talked about you sometimes."

"Really?" Sasori asked while crouching to my level. "Does it even occur to you that even though you know my name, it doesn't change the fact I am a dangerous missing-nin?"

"I don't think you're evil. You simply don't agree with a certain opinion, that doesn't mean you're evil. People just call you evil because you're not exactly like them. Ninja kill people everyday but most people consider that evil, does that mean that ninja are evil?"

"Hmm." He gave a gentle smile, satisfied with my answer if not a bit surprised. "You have a point. Anyway what were you doing on the outskirts of town?"

"Training."

"To be what?"

"A ninja."

"Why?"

"I don't have an exact reason. I don't come from a important clan, but all my friends are going on to become ninjas. I don't want to be left behind nor do I want to lose the chance to possibly find where I fit in life. I don't seem to fit in anywhere. I guess I want to follow in their footsteps."

"Why not create your own for your friends to follow in?"

"I don't have a teacher." I suddenly perked up with an idea. "Can you be my sensei?"

"You're sure of this? My training will never be easy and I won't make it easy for you."

"Fine. Not everyone is a natural talent."

"You will meet me here, in this cave every day for the next month. I will train you until I must leave this village, but you must never reveal this to anyone else. Understand?"

"Yes, Sasori-sensei!"

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I returned to the cave everyday after that. Sasori's training was difficult and torturous; I could swear he would smirk at me when I wasn't looking. Sasori told me that I had excellent charka control for what he would teach me, which I would later learn was puppetry. Sasori had me train my body physically but never showed me how to wield a puppet. Sasori was rather strict in his teachings and would sometimes just throw in an art lecture just to torture me. He finally showed me how to create charka strings but mine were flimsy and could barely support the puppet given to me for short practice sessions.

I returned to my family's apartment one last time to prepare for tomorrow when we would leave and it would near my birthday yet again. My parents had already notified me that we were to be leaving soon. As I packed my things away a rapping sound came from my wooden window.

I opened the window to reveal Sasori with a scroll in one hand and a wooden lacquered bow in the other. Sasori immediately disappeared after handing the items to me. I opened the box and it revealed a small marionette that was cleverly disguised as a doll that looked eerily realistic. It was small but I knew it had traps nearly everywhere, because of the training Sasori had given me.

I left the scroll to be packed in my bag and didn't open it.

The doll's only obvious give away to the fact that it was in fact not a doll at all was it's scorpion stamp on the back of it's neck.

_Sasori has an ego hidden somewhere, doesn't he?_

**Second chapter done, more will follow. **


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 2: Bloody Mist

We were now on an extremely slow moving boat to Kiri. I must have picked up Sasori's impatience, because the trip was agonizingly slow for me. I still hadn't opened the scroll Sasori had left for me because my parents had become suspicious to where I had been going daily for the last month in Suna. They had heard about Gaara and were satisfied by that. But the fact that he had left before the last month and I hadn't told them of what I had been doing for that last month worried them. Especially my worrywart of a father, he had to know where I was most of the time.

"Sakura, what have you been doing this last month? You haven't said anything about it like you did when you hung out with Gaara." They had asked as we had gotten onto the boat to take us to Kirigakure.

"Training."

"To be what exactly?" Asked my mother. She wouldn't be as upset as my father would be when I replied.

"A ninja. I asked to become a ninja a few months ago, remember? You promised you would consider it once we got home to the Fire country."

"Yes we said we would _consider_ it, Sakura." Insisted my father. "You don't have any official training and you could get hurt very easily because you don't know what you're doing!"

"What if I had found a teacher?" I yelled back at him, my impatience and rage at his belief that I was incapable of anything but being someone's housewife was irritating me.

"Is that what you've been doing for the last month? Looking for a teacher?" Asked my father. "You've been running around the Sand village asking total strangers to whether they would teach you? Do you know exactly how dangerous that is for a little girl like you? You didn't even ask us about it!"

Immediately thinking of how Sasori had so plainly put it…

"_Does it even occur to you that even though you know my name, it doesn't change the fact I am a dangerous missing-nin?"_

In other words I had actually been doing exactly that, asking a rather dangerous stranger to teach me. Even though I had learned about him from Granny Chiyo and he had never hurt me, it still didn't change the fact that he _was_ a dangerous missing-nin/stranger. I said, "was" because I knew him now, he was an impatient puppet master who happened to be only a few years older than me. But still that fact was enough to cool down my temper immediately.

"No, I haven't done anything like that. I was going to a training field every day and practicing projectile throwing, I have improved my aim considerably." I said, lying straight to the face of my parents, but it was not a complete lie, Sasori had forced me to continue practice with kunai and shuriken on a daily basis, and he had commented on how I had improved.

"You could have hurt yourself! You are now forbidden to train, until we return home and find you a teacher, _if_ we decide you can be a ninja." Answered my father in his cold, icy tone reserved only for punishments.

That was the end of the conversation.

Several days later we had finally arrived. The village was rather misty, and lived up to its name easily. The entire village had an eerie feeling to it, especially since Gaara and Sasori had both warned me of the dangers of the Mist village. They had called it the Bloody Mist village because of its violent history, which didn't really explain why we had come here to restock if we were in such a dangerous village.

The mist village was known for its violent ninja and their little mercy. I couldn't help but see my parents as defenseless people in a place known for its killers. Yet the idea of my parents dying seemed so far off and seemingly impossible. But I knew inside that it definitely wasn't.

We were in the Mist village because we needed to restock. Which seemed nearly impossible in this near abandoned city. But we did, we visited a store that had good stock and connections with our family.

Amazingly nothing bad happened while we were in the Mist village, not until we were about half a mile outside of it.

The Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, or rather five Swordsmen of the Mist, were fighting outside the city. Zabuza Momochi had already left the organization and it looked as if another was trying to do the same. (I had sworn I had seen him traveling with a young boy on our way to the Mist village, but I didn't say anything.) I assumed this because the other five swordsmen were attacking him.

The man had blue skin and a huge bandaged sword. Every time he swung his sword the dense air in the area would thin then immediately thicken again. It seemed the charka emitted by the others would disappear but quickly be dispersed again.

The area was already difficult to travel with its deep puddles and muddy ground, the Mist ninja just made it worse with their water-based jutsus. The puddles surrounding us were quickly deepening and we were already too far away from the village to easily run back. No one else was out here with us; all the other civilians had already taken cover in the village and closed the doors.

Then a huge wave came rushing towards us from one of the swordsmen's jutsu. My parents were quickly pulled out of the way by one of the swordsmen nearby, I, on the other had been swept away by the wave before I could be seen or reached.

I quickly lost sight of the surface, and my attempts to hold in my last breath were pressed out by a strong underwater current. My world had become dark and silent as I inhaled a mouthful of water before absently thinking about how this water had probably been summoned out of a ninja's gullet with a slight cringe.

I suddenly started stroking out towards where I thought the surface was, and a few seconds later my face broke through to the chilling air. My head was dizzy from the lack of oxygen and my nostrils were burning from the inhaled salt water. I tried to inhale oxygen but only coughed up the water I had swallowed earlier.

I struggled to keep my head above the water and to breathe properly as the current swept me further and further away from my parents. I knew I was beyond help now as the water had become like a mini sea or salt-water lake. I simply drifted with my small bag of possessions, trying to stay to above the surface.

Eventually the water resided and I could touch the ground again. I had been dogpaddling the entire time to keep my head above the water. I was tired and my entire body hurt. I had beaten and scratched by the debris in the wave.

My left arm was bleeding and probably broken, where I left it to dangle limply by my side. I didn't want to keep moving but I had to. To see my parents, to see Naruto, to see Gaara, to see Sasori, to see Sasuke, to see Ita-

I began to fall victim to my own fatigue as I started to stumble around like a drunkard. I could have sworn I was hallucinating but the last thing I remembered seeing was a person or two.

Funny thing was, one of the people looked like Itachi. But what would Itachi be doing in the Water Country? And who would be with him if he wasn't currently in ANBU attire?

~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~

I woke up again on a small bed. I vaguely remembered being carried here, because of the movements I had felt during my sleep. I had thought that I had been hallucinating when I saw Itachi and an older man in front of me on the same path as I was on before I had fallen asleep. But even if it hadn't been them, someone was considerate enough to move me to a small bed, and if it wasn't to be kind then I would fight then off to the best of my abilities, I thought to myself as I withdrew the doll from my bag.

Inside the bag I had kept the puppet disguised as my doll, the scroll Sasori had given to me before leaving, some weapons Gaara had left for me to practice with, and a change of clothes. The rest of my stuff my parents carried for me in a large trunk. I began to wonder where I was so I looked around the room quickly.

The room looked like a hotel's, there was another bed on the other side of the room that was messy and unmade as if slept in. In a small corner there was a table with the classic fruit bowl on top and that seemed to be it, except for the door.

After I had made the mental list inside my head, there were the sounds of footsteps outside the door. I grabbed a kunai from my bag and shoved the backpack back where it had laid before. I then lay back down and acted as if I was asleep, hid the kunai under the pillow in my hand. I did all of this, because I was finally taking my father's and Sasori's advice that I did not know who had taken me, therefore I would treat them as a threat to me.

The door opened quietly and I could hear footsteps heading straight towards the bed. The footsteps stopped on my right side. The mattress suddenly shifted to the right side as if someone was half kneeling on it. I felt a hand gently pull the blanket off me and then tuck a lock of my hair behind my ear to get it out of my face.

"I can tell you're acting. You're breathing too fast and irregularly to be sleeping." Stated a vaguely familiar voice.

I quickly opened my eyes and without thinking threw the kunai in the direction of the voice. I heard a thump as the metal connected with something. I panicked inside of my head, worrying about whether the throwing knife had missed or killed the man. I hadn't meant to kill whoever it was but if the kunai had missed then I would have lost my chance to escape because then he would be on his guard.

"Sakura, are you alright?" Asked the same voice. It didn't occur to me the voice knew my name.

I still didn't turn to face him yet, still too scared to look.

"Man, she almost got you there Itachi. I'm almost disappointed to call you an Uchiha if a seven-year-old almost took out the clan prodigy." Added another voice, mocking Itachi.

Itachi? I turned around and saw the familiar face I thought I had hallucinated earlier.

"Itachi!" I yelled before tackling Itachi to the ground. I was so happy to see a familiar face, especially one from Konoha. I was so excited to see him I didn't realize my arm was in pain until after he began to sit up again.

"Ow!" I immediately jumped off him, remembering my arm was still broken. I fact that the both of us had landed on it only worsened the pain. I began to cry as my tears welled up and I tried to ignore the pain.

I probably looked like a wimp to Itachi. I was standing there cradling my arm and trying not to cry. I had told him about how I wanted to become a ninja and now I was showing weakness in front of the one person I looked up to and trusted.

"Come here Sakura." Commanded Itachi in his stern voice.

I didn't move.

Itachi quickly got up and carried me over to the bed. He sat me down on the edge and kneeled in front of me. He took the arm and rolled up my sleeve to reveal my arm, which had started to bleed again. The lower half of my arm was covered in bruises and cuts, but they heavily converged around the lower part of my arm.

"Where exactly does it hurt the most?"

I stared at him as if it wasn't obvious where my arm was in pain. There were bruises everywhere it was if he didn't know what a bruise was.

"I can't heal the bone properly if you can't tell me where it feels as if there is a break. My medical ninjutsu aren't further than basic healing at most, I can't scan the area for a breakage like a properly trained medic ninja can. I can only heal the entire area and accelerate the body's ability to fix itself to how it was before just in case the break wasn't clean or partially healed improperly."

"Right here." I pointed to where my arm was in pain the most. I felt childish for not understanding what he intended to do earlier, but I silently reminded myself I still was a child and had only turned seven a week ago.

I realized I was in clean clothing, and seemed as if I had been bathed. I quickly felt a blush rising to my face for apparently no reason and quickly shook my head to be rid of it.

Itachi had finished healing my arm and wrapped it in bandages to pad the other large bruises he hadn't been able to heal. Itachi then began to stare at me insisting an answer to why I had thrown a kunai, or more importantly where had gotten a kunai.

"Thank you Itachi for healing my arm."

The stare continued, and the reason was vocalized.

"Sakura where did you get that weapon? The last time I remember your parents' opinion on you becoming a ninja were rather negative. They were extremely upset that I had taught you the grand fireball technique and refused my insistence that you could become a capable ninja. I'm quite sure that their opinions wouldn't have changed much towards how their only daughter should live her life."

"They don't know about it. I got the knives from a friend in Sunagakure, and I have been practicing with them recently."

"Alone?"

"No! I had my sensei watching over me the entire time! He's only a few years older than me and he taught me how to fight. Before you ask if he was a stranger, I was told about him by one of the village elders and he found me after I had passed out on the outskirts of Suna from practicing the grand fire-ball technique."

"Would this person happen to be Akasuna no Sasori?" Asked the other man in the room with us, the one who had mocked Itachi earlier.

"Um…" I hesitantly started to reply. Sasori had told me not to tell anyone about his training me.

"You don't have to answer Sakura. I know it's him already. Would he have happened to leave anything with you before he left?"

I thought of the scroll he had left with me.

"Yes. I haven't opened it yet so you can go ahead and read it."

"On I don't want anything that's written inside the scroll. There just might be something hidden on the scroll."

I was confused but retrieved the scroll anyways, gave it to the man and jumped up on Itachi's lap.

"Hmm…" The man examined the scroll for about 30 seconds before finally finding what he seemed to be looking for. He tapped the rod that the scroll was wrapped around and expertly caught the smaller scroll that fell out of the hollow inside. He tossed the original scroll back to me and unfurled his own.

"Itachi, it looks like he's accepted my terms."

"Who are you exactly?" I asked curious to who this man was and what he was doing with Itachi. He looked to be rather young but I could tell he was just acting, and that he certainly was a whole lot older than he looked.

"Try guessing, Pinkie. I'm the last person you'll ever think of."

"Madara Uchiha."

He immediately began laughing and I almost worried if I had gotten it wrong. But the slight twitch Itachi had given off had made me assume I was right, Itachi only twitched when he was surprised or trying to hide something. In this situation it could fit perfectly.

"And why do you think I am Madara? He's the founder of the Uchiha clan and long dead by now."

"Because only Uchihas would be egotistical enough to be disappointed in someone because they were simply taken by surprise by a small pink haired girl. Anyway I've seen all the Uchihas and none of them wear their hair like that anymore, except for the huge statue at the Valley of the End."

Itachi chuckled muttering something that sounded something like "Very true, Sakura."

"Then how could I be him, if Madara is dead? Obviously he couldn't have lived this long, it's impossible for any person to live this long right?"

"Nothing is impossible in the world of ninja. Madara Uchiha could have found a forbidden immortality jutsu and so he could be you right now."

"Prove it then."

"Itachi twitches when he tries to hide something or he's surprised. If I surprised him by guessing correctly on my first try then he has reason to be surprised. If he's hiding something, and he twitched at the beginning of this conversation it must have been because of the topic of this conversation or where he believed it would lead to would involve him somehow. He knows I would turn to him if I needed reassurance in my guess, and he knows the answer to whether I'm right or not."

I looked up at Itachi, who had been resting his head on mine, the entire conversation. I knew his weakness, my pleading eyes.

He signed in defeat then held his hands up in mock defeat.

"You are correct Sakura. You have learned to read me through and through. But why are you in the Mist village? You are aware how dangerous it is?"

"Yes, and that's why I'm here with you now. My parents had restocked in Kirigakure and we were just leaving when one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist was trying to leave the organization. One of their jutsus hit the nearby area and swept me away, my family was saved by a nearby swordsman. I had been nearly drowned and beaten to death before the water finally resided. I had only began to start limping again before I passed out, thinking I had hallucinated you."

"Well I was surprised to find you literally washed up on the path we were taking. But earlier you said you were practicing a grand fireball technique on the outskirts of Suna? You could have died of dehydration or overexerting your stamina!"

"Sasori found me. I had several bottles of water before and my parents knew where I was. I was in absolutely no danger there."

"What if Sasori hadn't found you? Or what if it wasn't Sasori that had found you but someone else who prays on little foolish girls just like you?"

"Itachi, you're always acting like my father! You are not my father and you never will be! You were always the person who thought I was capable compared to what my parents believed! My father just wants me to be someone's ideal wife to be paraded around town and gossip with the neighbors. I don't want to be useless, I want to be seen as strong and neither of you believe I am!"

Itachi got up and left the room, after telling Madara we would need to bring me to the Earth Country, more specifically the Stone Village to find my parents.

I knew it would be quite a while before one of us would apologize to each other; both of us were rather stubborn. But considering there were only two beds, and Itachi had to sleep somewhere, I would probably have snuggled up to Itachi by morning.

Madara spoke up.

"Itachi has been suffering under a lot of stress lately. He just cares for you and worries about you. He's mentioned you a lot recently because he was rather sure he was never going to see you again. When you washed up in front of us and he recognized you he immediately halted our mission to get you somewhere safe." I noticed Madara had said mission rather oddly and I remembered Madara had left the village a long time ago after fighting the first Hokage for the title.

"You're a missing nin. I just realized that." I said quietly.

"This coming from the child who was trained by Sasori, that is sort of sad to see how long it took for you to come to that conclusion."

"But why is Itachi on a mission working with a missing-nin from Konoha? Konoha isn't aware you are alive and all that."

"You trust Itachi a lot don't you?" Madara answered while staring straight at the wall.

"Yes."

"Then let him have his reasons."

"Okay."

"You are aware what that scroll Sasori gave you is for, right?"

"No, I told you I haven't opened it."

"Well then open it."

I opened the scroll and realized it was filled with notes for puppetry jutsu. They were all theories but they were clarified, nothing vague. It was the same as the theories I had written down for the grand fireball technique. I would learn through theory.

I grabbed my bag and pulled out the doll. I ignored Madara's laughter as he said something about the doll looking very threatening in a sarcastic way.

I referred back to the scroll and saw Sasori had labeled all the notes in his very neat handwriting detailing the purposes they could be used for. There were rather specific ones I wanted to try out but first the enlargement of the puppet would be best. I quickly performed the jutsu and attached my charka strings to it. The puppet that had been disguised as a doll was now about my size and looked very intimidating to the point where it even surprised Madara somewhat.

I began the drills Sasori had taught me until my arms were sore and I was running low on chakra. I could tell because I was tired and the puppet had automatically reduced its size back to normal. I placed the scroll and puppet back into my bag and prepared for bed.

Madara left the room soon after and I fell asleep.

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Itachi POV

Madara exited the room as I walked back down the hallway of the hotel. I had just come back from meditating at the small pond nearby. I was tired and was ready to sleep even though the way my clan had raised me, left me unable to truly have a peaceful sleep without waking up at the slightest sound or falling into flashbacks of the past.

"You know Itachi, Sakura really does trust you. It's funny how she's unfazed by the discovery that I'm a missing-nin and how she figures things out so quickly. I think she's ready to forgive you now too."

"Sakura has always been like that. She would retreat into her room to study because she's made fun of in her group of friends. She has such a delicate self-esteem she feels insignificant to others around her so she wants to be accepted by becoming strong. Her parents discourage her wishes to become a ninja because they are afraid of losing her, so they refuse to get her a proper teacher. She instead stubbornly goes behind their backs to study jutsu theories and accepts the help of anyone who offers, like Sasori or me."

"…"

"Her belief is rather flexible compared to other people I've met. She believes a person's definition of what's evil or good is whether people fit in with them or not. If someone doesn't fit in they are immediately cast off as being evil, if they fit in they are good. Our clan members thought we were evil threats to the clan, so we had to be eliminated, but being a missing-nin doesn't change Sakura's opinion of you. Every ninja kills so people think they are evil. When they kill off one of a family's members, they would naturally ask why and become angry or vengeful, but what if that family member truly was evil? The family wouldn't deny it if they had proof, but they certainly wouldn't encourage that death is the best possible answer for that family member. In her eyes all ninja are the same, we all kill for people greater than us, or so we believe, but some are only pure evil in selfishness. I'd like to vote for Orochimaru as setting the perfect example of evil."

"I must agree with you Itachi, Orochimaru creeps me out, too."

I gave him a blank stare and went inside the room to go to bed. Madara followed exclaiming why I had given him such a stare while I continued to ignore him and slipped under the covers with Sakura. Madara eventually gave up and went to the other bed to sleep. After I heard him sleeping soundly, I turned to Sakura and saw she had a small doll in her hand. It was seemed to be laced with traps and it occurred to me that she been trained under Sasori. It seemed she been training with it recently since it still had traces of chakra on it. It was probably also the reason she had fallen into a deep sleep so easily. She seemed to have picked up an Uchiha habit, train until you run out of anger, something I would do when I was younger, this was usually encouraged by my family as long as I didn't show the anger to them.

I noticed something as she curled up towards me searching for heat, I didn't push her away and let her lay there. She seemed to pick up a trait from anyone she had learned from and assimilates it to become her own. The way I trained when I was younger, Sasori's impatience, and she would likely continue to do this as she continued to learn.

I finally fell asleep as my thoughts drifted off with Sakura nuzzling into my chest and I didn't wake up in the middle of the night, for the first time in my life, I slept soundly.

Yeah that little "trait-picker-upper" of Sakura's came from me. I have this habit of picking up other's habits or personality traits. Some people find it creepy.

So next chapter is being worked on, I'm on winter break so I'll be writing more often. I'm considering entering a one-shot contest by Vesper-chan. Check out her profile for the details.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 3: Journey to Stone

Itachi PoV

I slowly woke up and sleepily realized I was feeling peaceful for once, I had actually slept through the night for once. My clan had raised me to be immediately alert when woken by the smallest noise and it had taken me awhile to fully notice where I was and such. It seemed to amaze me that in this one single night I had not woken up once, this of course could have been a bad thing if someone had attacked during the night. I especially didn't trust Madara with the concept of safety, he was my elder and was capable in battle but he waited for the last minute to dispose of an enemy efficiently.

Speaking of the devil, I could hear snickering across the room coming from where his bed would be. I opened my eyes to give him a death glare but that only served to increase his giggling. I changed my glare to a stare that silently questioned what exactly he was laughing at. His answer surprised me.

"You know Itachi, you come off as a very cold thirteen-year-old, judging by the way you act and that death glare you give everyone? But the fact that you are holding a pink haired six-year-old in your arms as you sleep completely dulls your attempts to physically kill me with just a glance. To think the entire Uchiha clan depended on you to be their man on the inside and also be the heir to the head of the clan." Laughed out Madara as he pointed at me.

I quickly glanced away from Madara and down to where Sakura laid nuzzling into my arms. I couldn't help but feel caught between emotions. I wasn't bothered by where she had moved to during the night but I still felt a little awkward when Madara began to call me a "pedophile."

"Madara, the only one here eligible to be a pedophile here is you."

The comment immediately silenced Madara's laughing fit, and in shock he fell off the bed backwards onto the floor.

"Are you suggesting I would commit such an act?"

"I wouldn't put you past it."

"I am offended Itachi. You think I would ever touch your precious Sakura?"

"She is her own person Madara."

"Really, when are we ever our own persons? Yes we think we make our own decisions and sometimes we are completely aware they are not our own decisions because we are acting for someone else. But who ever realizes that none of us can make our own decisions uninfluenced by some opinion or another? Even those of us who are supposed to make an unbiased decision will make a decision by someone else's beliefs or influences eventually. What we've defined as facts started out as a mass of opinions that were eventually accepted through proof, when they could still be disproved by yet another mass of readily accepted opinions."

I continued with a blank stare. I had already heard all of this before and this was yet another reason why I would never trust Madara. He sounded suspicious whenever he went off into one of his explanations, it seemed he had plans for the group he was gathering.

I could feel Sakura begin to wake up and she shifted a bit. Her eyes opened blearily and she didn't seem to notice where she was for a moment. She looked around and gave a smile to each of us then collasped again.

"Sakura? Are you alright?"

"Hmm?"

"I asked you whether you were alright."

"Yes, I'm just tired."

"Tired from what? What were you doing last night after I left?"

"Training. I'm not very good, but I started studying Sasori's scroll that he left me."

"What about the theory to the grand fireball technique I left with you?" I asked, speaking to her as if I had assigned it to her to study.

"That's what I was practicing in Suna. I only got a few embers though…I tried a second time and I think I got a few more embers but I fainted. So I don't really know the results."

I kept silent; I had never truly complimented Sasuke on how he tried to train so I wasn't sure how to handle the situation when it came to Sakura. I occurred to me that she had a delicate self-esteem but I wasn't sure how to criticize without hurting her feelings.

"Itachi, do you think I could show you how I did the technique and you could tell me what I did wrong?"

"Yes. But later when we're closer to the Stone Village and before that we have to travel with Madara for a short while. I'll carry you."

"Alright. Thanks, Itachi."

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Sakura's PoV

We had left the rented room early in the morning, before the sun was up. I had only woken up at the time because of the noise of conversation.

Madara had mentioned that he needed to meet up with some people in the countries along our way to the Earth Country. It would only take a few days longer and it bothered me a bit but I knew I couldn't have been their only purpose to head this way.

We eventually crossed the Fire Country's border again, which was where the hotel had been located, and entered the Rain Village. If I had said it was raining, it would have been a complete understatement.

The entire city was stone and metal, there seemed to be no sign of plant life. Madara had mentioned it had to do with the leader of the village and his ability to use the rain as a defense. The idea seemed silly to me, that rain could be used as a weapon. It was only cold and wet; the worst threat it could become was a cold.

We walked through the rain and saw a bunch of people fighting everywhere. Some men had ambushed another while yelling something about "Hanzou's Reign." Itachi shifted me to one side of him, the side furthest away from the violence, and pulled me away when I tried to see what they where doing.

"Itachi, why were they fighting?" I of course understood fighting, but didn't understand why they were fighting. It was obvious to me that they weren't at war so I concluded that they didn't need to fight.

"They are in civil war, it's because of the recent change of leaders and some people don't like that."

"Why?"

"You've played games on teams in your classes in school? Someone usually becomes a leader there, correct? Then think of it this way, you enjoy having that certain person as your leader but then he is switched to a different team by the teacher. Then another person is brought onto your team and politely put, you'd rather have the other person. What would you do?"

"I'd probably tell them that or ask for the teacher to switch people." I answered as I thought of Sasuke or Naruto being the leader, then them being switched out for Ami. I disliked Ami and she hated me, so much like the other girls that they would sometimes… Suddenly I understood exactly what that man had felt like as he had gotten attacked.

"But here, there is no teacher to help you out. And sometimes just telling the person you don't like them might not help, yet, people still argue. It's situations like this that cause wars, even with people from the same country or village."

"Then, why are we here?"

"Madara is here to find the man who wishes to become the "teacher" to the world." Itachi gave a small smile, which immediately settled my worries about being in this country.

We reached an odd looking building, it looked like a regular building except for the fact it had a head with a gaping mouth protruding from it's side. The head seemed to serve a purpose as it had multiple pipes coming from its mouth and appeared to be an opening to the inner building.

Madara led Itachi and I inside of the building. Immediately the world seemed to become quiet. Madara silently walked ahead and no one stopped him. I followed Itachi, staying close behind him.

After a long set of staircases, which during the climb to the top of the building I had almost fallen down a particularly long set of stairs and could have killed myself, Itachi began carrying me on his back.

We eventually made it to the top and reached a door. Madara was let inside and two people stood on the other side of the room. The first was a very pretty blue-haired woman with a paper flower in her hair, she had a rather hardened facial expression but it softened when she looked at me. The man who sat next to her had orange hair and piercings all over his face. He had this intimidating feeling around him that caused me to hide behind Itachi.

The oranged haired man nodded and the blue haired woman walked from around the desk. She offered her hand to me, Itachi looked at me and nodded, then I hesitantly reached out to grab it.

She led me away from Itachi and into what I assumed to be her room in the place. The woman led me over to a table and immediately sat down. I sat down opposite her and shyly glanced up at her.

"You shouldn't be afraid. I won't hurt you." Her facial expression hadn't changed much but her voice held warmth similar to my mother's. She placed her hand out on the table palm-side up and a piece of paper came from it. It drifted in the air for a moment then folded itself into a butterfly that fluttered around the room before disappearing out the window.

"So pretty…" I answered half dazed by what I had just seen.

"I'm sorry but I can't teach it to you no matter how much I want to, it's a bloodline technique."

I looked over to her again with a questioning look.

"Itachi has told me a lot about you, how you like to learn different things and jutsus from him. I'm sorry for immediately assuming you'd want to learn something like that, but I didn't what to let you get your hopes up."

"Oh."

"My name is Konan, I don't really have a last name anymore. Neither does Pein, we've grown up together so I can tell you he really isn't as scary as you think he is."

Konan seemed to stare of into the space over my head and since it seemed she was remembering something so I decided to stay silent.

The rest of the hour was spent with Konan and I talking about how I had gotten here. As I explained my story she seemed actually interested. She began teaching me some basic origami and showed me how she had used it when she was younger. Our time was ended when her butterfly returned to her and we left the room to go back to where we had left Itachi, Pein, and Madara.

Itachi grabbed my hand again as soon as I walked in the door and Madara left after leaving some papers with Pein and Konan. We followed him out of the village and then I was up on Itachi's back again, flying through the trees.

A little over a day later we had arrived on the border of the Waterfall Country and the Grass Country, both of which held hidden villages. Madara had told us that we wouldn't enter the Grass Country; his associate could meet us later.

Eventually as we moved along the border, avoiding the guards at checkpoints, which didn't really confuse me since an assumed long dead man was running with us. Still even though we avoided these places Madara had begun wearing a white mask we met up with two men.

Hidan and Kakuzu were their names. Kakuzu came from the neighboring Waterfall Country and had stitches all over his barely seen face. He seemed to have a rather greedy perspective on life. Hidan on the other hand could easily be considered crazy. By every single mother and child on the face of this planet. He cursed and carried a huge scythe with three blades on it.

We met up quickly with Madara leaving instructions with them and we left.

After we entered the Earth Country we stopped suddenly. Madara stood there staring at a certain patch of dirt, which seemed strange, as if he was expecting something or rather someone.

"Itachi, what is Madara doing?" I whispered to Itachi.

My question was answered a few seconds later by something emerging from the ground. It at first looked like some sort of plant was "melding" out of the dirt, but the leafy-colored pod (it looked like a closed Venus fly-trap) spilt in half to reveal a man's head inside. The man's face was split down the center by two different skin colors. One side was black and the other side was white. The black side didn't seem to have a mouth nor could you see the white of his eye. The white side had these features, but the mouth seemed to only be half there.

"Madara-sama."

This was the first time I had heard anyone use the title "-sama" for Madara's name. Hidan had been disrespectful and Kakuzu merely kept silent. Madara had explained things without using his name and acted as if he were a messenger. Itachi had pulled me off to the side during this conversation so I couldn't hear it.

"**The other damn members have been assembled…**where to next, Madara-sama?"

I was surprised to hear the man had two very different voices, and whenever the eviler sounding of the two spoke the white side's mouth never moved.

"You can find me after we finish our task of helping Sakura. As you can see, she is our guest."

"…Hello…**Looks like a nice lunch to me…"**

Itachi had shifted me higher up on his back as I whimpered at the threat. I knew as long as I didn't touch the ground I would be safe, Itachi on the other hand, was touching the ground. I quickly tightened my grip on Itachi's shoulders as if it could help, but Itachi simply stayed there.

"Zetsu, you are not eating the child." Madara replied in a surprisingly scary voice.

Zetsu visibly backed away slightly, as if he had been burned.

"I'll be waiting, you still have other members to deal with." Zetsu finished and began to sink into the ground again.

~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~

On the Outskirts of the Stone Village

We were quickly nearing Iwagakure, Itachi carried me on his back because I was too small to run as fast as Madara and him. I couldn't help but enjoy the feeling of sailing through the tree tops on Itachi's back, even though he and Madara were acting much more serious about it.

Itachi suddenly landed in a clearing and Madara stopped right behind him. Itachi slowly set me down on the ground next to him and gestured to the clearing.

Understanding his silent question I quickly did the signs for the grand fireball technique, after inhaling the chakra gathered in my mouth and blew. I quietly hoped I would be able to do something worthy of attention or show some improvement since my last attempt. A small stream of flame materialized and slowed to form into a small spherical shape five feet away from us. I was so surprised by the development I gasped.

With the gasp of surprise I immediately inhaled hot ash and the fireball quickly dissipated. I began coughing in pain as I tried to rid myself of the hot ash that burned my throat and mouth. I could feel a quick tug as something was placed around my neck and whatever the mystery object was it dropped into my shirt. I collapsed to the ground from the coughing fit as it shook my entire frame.

The air suddenly seemed thick with something that seemed oddly familiar but I couldn't place it. I immediately felt some relief as someone began hitting my back to try and help with my coughing. The hand felt strangely small and covered, as if covered by a glove.

"Are you alright, hmm?" Asked a feminine voice.

**End! I have split this chapter into two separate ones because I wrote so much. So don't think of it as a cliffy but a great place to split the chapter in two. Sorry for not updating, I actually wrote this on New Year's Eve 3:30 am in the morning, I gave up because I was so tired that half the page was underlined in those little red and green zigzag lines.**

**This chapter is short compared to the next. This chapter is 7 pages and the next is ten.**

**An acquaintance of mine once pointed this out:**

"**Why do guys like looking at breasts? They're just two lumps of fat, so what's so great about that?"**

**This came from a boy…so think about that.**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 4: Stone

I suddenly realized it wasn't Itachi or Madara. I suddenly jumped up scaring the female who had been helping me as I quickly looked around for Itachi. I felt a pang of abandonment strike me hard in the chest. The person I had trusted most had left me on the outskirts of a city I hadn't been to before.

"Did you lose sight of your parents, hmm?"

I looked over to the girl who had helped me and saw she was worried for me. Her blue eyes were shining with tears as if she felt my sense of abandonment.

"Sort of." I answered. "I was separated from them in Kirigakure and we were heading to Iwagakure. I met up with an old friend of mine and an acquaintance of his. They brought me here." I didn't mention exactly who I was traveling with since I quite sure she wouldn't believe me if I had mentioned Madara.

"We'll then I guess it was a good thing I was collecting material for my family's special craft, hmm. You might have not been let into the village without someone else. Why don't I help you find your parents, hmm?" She asked.

I realized she was really pretty and happy to help me even though she had never met me. I immediately forgot my depression about how I had been abandoned by Itachi.

She began to walk off toward the village, and I quickly followed her.

"I was out here gathering material for my family's clay. Speaking of my family my little brother could easily be volunteered, by force if necessary, to help us find your parents."

"But what did you mean by clay?"

"Yes, the clay…" She replied patiently. "My clan is known for their special sculpting skills and our work with clay. You see…hmm…our family has certain traits that allow us to create special clay artwork. These traits have been passed down in every generation, which is what defines our clan, hmm."

"You mean like a kekki genkai? Like the Sharingan?"

"So you're from the Fire Country?" She asked without waited for my answer, except for my quick nod of my head, and continued. "That explains your accent. But yes it's sort of like a kekki genkai, it doesn't reside in our eyes though. How can I explain this…hmm…well, why don't I just show you, hmm?"

She began to take off her thick gloves that were stained with various splotches of dirt and such, which proved she worked in the forest a lot. After she was done, she revealed the palm of her hand.

I gasped in surprise but didn't flinch when she revealed that she had mouths in the palms of her hands. One of these mouths smiled at me and I realized something. The mouths looked rather feminine and they smiled like any other mouth. They certainly didn't seem to be like what I would've imagined them to be like.

"So how do you use the mouths?"

"Well, we feed clay to them, preferably a special kind made by our clan, the mouths imbue it with our chakra for manipulation through certain secret jutsu later on, and then we mold it with our hands, hmm. Technically anyone could do this without having mouths on their hands, but they wouldn't know how to manipulate the clay properly, and they could have it blow up in their face, quite literally, hmm."

We had entered the village without a problem and were now walking towards where I assumed her house to be.

"So you're saying you would need a clan member to teach you?"

"Simply put, yes. But most people can't manipulate chakra that accurately, to be able to move it to their hands and mold it like a physical shape to insert into another thing specifically is near impossible to learn, hmm. It's a natural talent, a talent that happens to quite common with our family, hmm."

"So…"

Oh I'm sorry I just realized I hadn't given you my name. Its Mitsuko, so you don't have to call me by my last name."

"Mine is Sakura."

"Like your hair, hmm? Oh look! There it is!"

Mitsuko pointed to a large compound, which easily reminded me of the Uchiha compound. But this compound was slightly smaller and much more out in the open. It only had a few trees surrounding it.

"Nee-chan is that you, hmm? You're home already, hmm?" Yelled a voice that came from one of the larger houses. It wasn't deep or high enough to assign it a gender so I wasn't sure if it was a boy or a girl.

Mitsuko started to walk towards the house and I quickly followed behind her, not really sure if I was supposed to follow or not. We entered the room and I saw it was rather messy. But it was filled with beautiful sculptures of birds and other animals. The source of the voice was a longhaired clay splattered blonde on the other side of the room, who looked a lot like Mitsuko.

"Nee-chan, you know father isn't going to be happy with you if you failed to do what he asked you to do properly, hmm."

"That old man can shrivel up and die in Suna's deserts for all I care, hmm. We both know I don't care to try and out do the prodigy of our clan, hmm. It's not worth it, hmm. I can be disowned or whatever, hmm. You shouldn't worry about me, I can handle anything that man has up his kimono sleeves, you, on the other hand, if you ever start slacking he will have no mercy for you, hmm." She finished in a worried tone.

"Who's the girl, hmm?"

"Deidara! You shouldn't talk as if Sakura isn't here, you can ask her yourself, hmm."

"You just told me her name, hmm." Answered Deidara with a roll of his eye, since the other one was hidden behind a large lock of hair that had fallen from his ponytail.

"Excuse me, but I need to be going now, my parents are probably in some sort of worry induced coma, so I need to go find them." I stated as I began to head for the door.

Mitsuko's arms suddenly snatched me up from behind and prevented me from walking any further than the door way.

"What are you doing, hmm? You look as if you've actually kidnapped her from her family, hmm!" Asked Deidara walking over to Mitsuko and I. Deidara pulled me from her grasp and settled me on his back, piggyback style. "This is how you kidnap someone, properly, see she can't move, hmm."

Deidara removed one of his hands from where it was supporting me to take the time to have its little tongue stick out at his sister in a teasing manner.

"Can I be put down now? I can walk on my own." I asked.

"No! Hmm!" They shouted in unison. By this point they had walked out the front of the compound and were wandering Iwagakure's streets.

"Are your parents merchants, hmm?" Asked Mitsuko.

"Yes."

"What's digging into my back, hmm?" Asked Deidara. As I moved to remove my arm from around his neck he lightly teased me with: "Don't you know what you wear everyday?" because I didn't immediately respond to his first question.

I had figured out Deidara was a boy about five minutes ago when he wrapped my arms around his neck. My hands had brushed his front, and he was rather flat chested to be a female.

As I reached into my shirt I found a necklace that looked similar to the one Itachi wore all the time.

So they didn't abandon me…completely…okay they did abandon me…but it was probably because they heard Mitsuko nearby…but why couldn't they be seen with me?

"It's my necklace."

"Okay then, do me a favor and move it, hmm?"

"Okay."

"…"

"…"

"…"

"Nice day we're hav-"

"SAKURA!"

"GET AWAY FROM MY DAUGHTER YOU HOOLIGAN! SHANNARO!"

A flying kick hit Deidara in his face and knocked me off his back. Someone else who I immediately recognized as being my mom quickly snatched me up from the ground where I had laid. My father was chasing after Deidara with what looked like a bloody flail; I didn't really want to consider where the blood might have come from.

"Mom?" I asked still dazed by the fall.

"Yes, honey?" Answered my mom as she continued to try and smother me in motherly affection.

"What is Dad doing to Deidara?"

"Honey!" She turned me around to face her green eyes that were so much like my own. "He's forcing you to call him by first name, isn't he? Where did he touch you? Did he hurt you? We can get you to the hospital right now sweetie-"

"MOM!" I quickly interrupted her. "He didn't do anything at all to me. He and his sister were helping me look for you."

My mother blinked twice registering the information that I hadn't been hurt nor had a boy attacked me and immediately calmed down. She still didn't release me from her hold though.

"HONEY COME BACK HERE, SAKURA IS SAFE!" My mother yelled in the direction of where my dad had run off. Immediately my father ran back to us, appearing to have teleported in his speed. As soon as Dad got back he tackled me in a loving chokehold.

I waved to Mitsuko as she ran off to find Deidara while distractedly waving back at me. My parents carried me back to our new apartment and gave a glare to anyone who gave the slightest glance towards me. Their reactions could be received better if they hadn't given birth to a pink haired child, because everyone had never seen a pink haired child and were understandably curious.

We got there a little later in the evening and I slid off my father's back. I slowly walked into my room and dropped my bag at the doorway, before rethinking my decision and dragged it over to my neatly made bed.

I flopped down on top of the covers and pulled the necklace out of my shirt. As I looked at it, I realized it really did look like Itachi's necklace. But in closer inspection it wasn't black, but really just a deep shade of red. I noticed there was also a small note wrapped around the cord at the back. It was only about 5 centimeters long, about the size of a fortune cookie's paper. I unrolled it to find only two sentences.

"No matter what other's say, always trust someone. I have my reasons."

The note seemed to have two meanings to it. The first being the whole thing, the second being the two as separate messages. One as in Itachi has his reasons to always trust someone; always being paranoid could never get someone very far. Itachi was also likely referring to my recent anti-sociality in the village, and that he would have his own reasons for saying that. I thought about the idea of asking what he meant about it when we got back to Konoha.

"Sakura, dinner is ready!" Yelled my mom from down the hallway.

I opened my door and walked down the hallway into the kitchen. The smell of cooked food always was nice, especially in my home where my mother would happily cook and it would turn out excellent. I had learned a few cooking tricks but didn't really cook for myself. I was only 7 ½; I couldn't be trusted to use a stove by myself.

I sat down at the table and my parents talking filled the dinnertime. They finished first and then I would finish last. I would clear the table like always and go back into my room to read a book. But this time it was different, as soon as I cleared the table my parents called me back.

"Sakura, we'd like to ask you something…how did you get back here?" Asked my father.

"I got some help."

"How?"

"When I was washed away by that wave I stumbled into the path of a family that was traveling this way." I didn't mention Madara, because they wouldn't believe me, and they certainly wouldn't believe Itachi had been traveling with him either.

"Did you see Itachi?"

"No. Why?"

I continued to lie to keep up with my slowly growing white lie, if I answered yet they would probably ask to thank the Uchiha family or whom he was traveling with if it was a family.

My parents exchanged an odd look between each other, as if they were worried by something, but felt they still had to tell me.

"Sakura…" My mother started before she started crying.

"I didn't. But why are you asking?"

"The Uchiha clan…has been killed off…"

Immediately I thought of Itachi and Madara…they were alive, but what about Sasuke…was Sasuke all right?

"The killer was Itachi…he single handedly killed his entire family, except for Sasuke."

Suddenly I knew what my father would say next…

"Itachi has fled the village and there are hunter-nin after him. Itachi was last seen heading in this direction, and we're worried."

I suddenly thought of how I could be betraying my ninja village right now, by holding back this one bit of information. I didn't know where Itachi was going; all I knew was that he was traveling with Madara and no one would believe me if I said that.

"Why are you worried?" I asked, scared if my parents could tell if I was lying to them. They seemed to be scared of something.

"We know how close you were to Itachi… the village isn't expecting for him to go after civilians and they expect the hunter-nins to be able to find him. But what we're worried about is how he might try to kidnap you."

I was suddenly confused. Itachi had just left me here this morning. If he had any intention of kidnapping me he had spent an entire week with me. He hadn't had any intentions of kidnapping me, he had multiple opportunities to just run off with me or just refuse to bring me back.

For a second I was happy, that my parents were wrong and Itachi didn't wish to harm me, but the fact that he had killed his entire family scared me. He had acted strange that first time at the hotel, as if he was stressed, then it stuck me because he had just killed his entire family, so it must have affected him negatively.

Then that last part of his message rang through me.

"I have my reasons."

I slowly got up from the table and walked zombie-like into my room. I saw the note, still laying by the necklace and looked at it again. He had his reasons…to kill his family? I wanted to trust him…I needed to trust him…the first part of the message was _"No matter what others say, always trust someone." _

I decided to push the topic aside for the night, and slowly fell asleep with the message from Itachi's note repeating itself inside my head, a mantra that would not cease. I soon fell asleep…

~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~

"Sakura! That nice young boy that helped you is here to ask you something!" Yelled my mother.

For once my father came in to make sure I was up. "You know Sakura; just remember you don't have to do everything he says just because he's older than you. In fact, you don't have to do anything he says, if you don't want to."

"Dad, are you just upset because you didn't meet him first?"

"No. I just want you to know that you don't have to hang out with him."

"Nope. I have no problem with Deidara, Father."

My father seemed disappointed as he left the room so I could dress. I quickly pulled on a long sleeved t-shirt, since it was cold outside and some pants. I walked into the kitchen where Deidara had been let in to wait.

"Hi, Deidara." I gave a small wave, which he returned from his seat at the kitchen table.

"Your father has been telling me some interesting things about you, hmm." I walked over to him and he quickly whispered out of the side of his mouth. "He plans on killing me, hmm."

"I heard that!"

"Sorry, sir, hmm!"

"Well Sakura, for your first date-"

We both blushed at my mother's remark.

"It's not a date. We're just talking." I replied, trying hard to get the blush away from my cheeks.

"That's what they all say!" My mom replied as my father yelled from the other room.

"Don't encourage them!"

I had slowly begun to bang my head on the table, as Deidara started to laugh at my parents' antics.

"Your house is definitely funnier then mine, hmm."

"Why?" I asked curious, as I looked up from banging my head on the table.

"Didn't you notice yesterday, hmm? How quiet it is around there, hmm? The only noise was Mitsuko and I fighting, otherwise it's always eerily silent. It gets boring real fast, hmm."

"What about your parents?"

"My father is controlling, he wants a prodigal son that is the pride of the family."

"Who is it then?"

"Me." Deidara answered with a frown. "He gives Mitsuko a hard time because she fell behind to push me into my father's spotlight. It's a sacrifice from her that I never even asked for and now she's being threatened to be disowned or married off to some jerk…"

"What about your mother?" I asked, scared to know the answer.

"She's dead…"

"Oh…I'm sorry."

I noticed Deidara somehow lost most of his accent when he spoke about something serious. I started to wonder if it was an accent at all, maybe it was just something he and his sister did to irritate people.

"You shouldn't apologize for things you had nothing to do with, hmm. An apology loses its meaning if its used too much."

"…"

"I should probably leave now, hmm. There's a festival coming up, want to go with me?"

"Okay!"

"No you aren't!" My father stepped in to the room.

"Honey, they're just kids, what could possibly go wrong?"

"But he's a lot older than Sakura! She shouldn't be going out with him."

"You don't even know the boy's age! Deidara, how old are you?"

"Ten, hmm."

"See, only three years apart! Honey, go into the other room, your father and I will talk this out."

"Talk this out"= "Fight and create another Valley of the End."

I let Deidara out of the house and turned back to my room to read over the scrolls again. But before I had left the room a knock came at the door and I opened it again, revealing Deidara.

"Just remembered something, hmm. Mitsuko-nee-chan will be over tomorrow to pick you up, hmm."

"Why?"

"Do you have a yukata already, hmm?"

"No."

"She's coming over to find a yukata for you then, hmm. See you in a few days, hmm."

I closed the door again, only to realize that my parents were still fighting and usually their fights didn't last this long. It began to worry me.

Later when we finished supper again, my parents called me for another talk. But this time I choose the topic.

"Mom? Father? Why have you been fighting so much lately?"

"Well, you see, Sakura…Your father is worried about your safety. Especially because of what happened in the water country and how you got back."

"I, myself, am not sure of what I would've wanted for you to do in that situation. Whether I would've wanted you to head back to the village and find the store we were just at. Or for you have done what you did."

"But Father, I was washed away by that wave, I had injured my arm!" I said as I pulled up my sleeves for evidence of the fresh cuts and bruises. "I didn't even know what direction I had been facing because I had been so dazed, what did you expect me to do? I would have eventually died if I hadn't been washed into the path of that family!"

"That's what we've been arguing about Sakura. Your safety."

"We've rethought your ninja training and have decided it would be a good idea for you to enroll into the ninja academy."

"THANK YOU!" And I ran off to my room.

**Originally I was just going to have a entire chapter for the festival thing but I couldn't decide which festival it should be on. Then I thought, "Wow, Deidara certainly is getting a lot of spotlight compared to Itachi and the others…"**

'**Cause Itachi only got 1-½ chapters, Naruto and Sasuke got a ½ page, Gaara and Sasori got ½ a chapter each and Deidara would have two chapters if I did the festival thing. So I'm going to skip the festival get Sakura out of the Stone village and back home so Naruto and Sasuke can have their time to shine.**

**Maybe some others too. **

**Another one of my acquaintances was making fun of Naruto hand seals once…he made two of his own called the "Awkward Turtle" and "Awkward Pineapple." Basically he made a fist with one hand and laid another fist on top of it for the turtle he stuck out his pinkie and thumb on the top fist and rocked it side to side. The "Awkward Pineapple" was just his index, middle, and ring fingers held up.**

**Think about that…**


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 5: Returning Home

The year to be spent in Iwagakure came and went just like the year in Sunagakure. Deidara's sister Mitsuko had came and gotten me the yukata she had promised. Deidara brought me to the festival and unimpressed with the festival's fireworks showed me his variation of his family's artwork. He had made it so he could explode the clay at will and when I asked him how he did it he said it was a secret.

The year was spent spending time with Deidara and Mitsuko alternating and sometimes together. Mitsuko would try and make me more feminine. Deidara would try to get me to simply be more social. Then, the both of them together would usually just bring me out to eat with Mitsuko paying.

The end of the year came fast. My parents had alerted me that we were heading home again after a little over 2 years. I told Mitsuko and Deidara of this and Mitsuko simply hugged me and started to cry while Deidara simply stood there in thought.

That night I fell asleep and woke up the next morning to my mother's yells for me to get out of bed. We walked to the village gates only to find Deidara and Mitsuko waiting there for us.

"Deidara told me your birthday was coming up, hmm. So we brought you the gifts we won't be able to give you on your actual birth date, hmm." Said Mitsuko.

Mitsuko handed me a rather large wrapped gift and Deidara gave me what looked like a wrapped scroll and a necklace. Hanging from the necklace was a small bird, a clay bird to be exact, and knowing what he could do with the clay I leaned over to him and whispered a question in his ear.

"You're not going to make it explode or come to life, are you?"

"The instructions are in the gift, hmm."

"Thank you Deidara." I said as I tackled him to the ground in a hug.

I got off him and helped him to his feet before waving goodbye to both of them to run off to join my parents.

~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~

Konohagakure

We had arrived back in Konoha and returned to our old house, kept clean by other family members and friends. I immediately collapsed into my bed, enjoying the fact that I had missed it for so long and I was now reunited with it.

I immediately decided that tomorrow I would surprise Naruto and possibly Sasuke, though I wasn't sure how I would approach it.

Thinking about these happier thoughts eventually drifted me to sleep.

~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~

At a small park it was nearing lunchtime…a young pink haired girl headed home to where her parents would surely be waiting for her. After saying goodbye to my friend Sasuke and his older brother, Itachi, I left the park. My house was no more than a few blocks away and as long as I got home before dark I would be safe. It was the middle of the day so there could be no harm in walking anywhere.

I enjoyed walking through the nearby fields of flowers, it reminded me of when I met Ino, when she defended me from that mean girl Ami and her group of friends. All I had wanted to do was fit in, but they would always say mean things to me. Even Ino disliked whenever I would talk about hanging around with Sasuke.

From behind me I heard some noise, someone had probably come to enjoy the flowers here too, but I speed up. A small stone hit me in the back of the head. Then the noise grew heavier as if more people had joined and it sounded as if it was following me. I started to run towards the dirt path that lead from the village to the meadow and tripped as a few more rocks fell on my back and arms. But as I fell I twisted my ankle and turned around, I saw Ami and her gang throwing rocks and dirt at me.

"You think you're pretty? You're not good enough for Sasuke-kun or his brother!" Yelled Ami. "You're so ugly and stupid!"

I tried to hide from Ami's harsh words and my eyes were already burning with tears.

Ami threw an especially large rock that cut through my shirt and scraped my shoulder.

"Do you know why they hang out with you? They pity you cause you'll never attract anyone else! They don't mean it!"

Ami began to punctuate her cruel words with kicks and finally she stopped. I thought it was the end but instead she just had some of the other girls sit on my arms while she alternated between slapping and punching me.

"Stop!" Commanded an angry voice above the chaos circulating above me. I noticed the other girls had gotten up off me and only Ami was left. "What do you think you are doing?"

"Sasuke-kun I was-"

"Get away from her." Added another colder voice.

Ami ran off and I could now clearly see Sasuke and his older brother standing over me, looking worried.

"Why didn't you yell Sakura?"

"We were barely a quarter of a block away."

Sasuke pulled me to my feet and when I winced Itachi picked me up. They carried me all the way back to my house then handed me over to my parents after explaining what happened.

My mother soaked my ankle and wrapped it up afterwards before putting me in bed.

I fell asleep to the thoughts of what the girls had said, and realized on the inside it truly made me feel dead.

~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~

I woke up remembering that day that Sasuke and Itachi had saved me. I really was an idiot not to have defended myself better…how could I have wanted to be a ninja if I am still that weak…

The day after that I had headed into Ichiraku's ramen for my lunch and Naruto had noticed me because of my limp. I don't think I'm cut out to be a ninja…

Something banged at my 2nd story window. I turned and saw it was Naruto. I walked over and opened my window to let him in.

"Sakura-chan, you're back!"

"Hey Naruto…" I gave a small smile.

"You've been gone for two years! I missed you…"

"What's happened to Sasuke?"

"Teme? Well…all of his family was killed…that's about all I know…He's really alone now."

"And you haven't visited him?"

"Well, no…he slams the door in my face every time!"

"Come on Naruto, we're going get that boy out of his house if it's the last thing we do."

I grabbed Naruto's hand as we ran downstairs past my parents and out the front door.

"When did Naruto get here?" Asked my mother before we left.

We ran down the street as we ducked and dodged people walking to work or the market. Eventually we came to the entrance to the Uchiha district, it suddenly seemed so cold and empty compared to the Uchiha district I knew from two years ago. I immediately slowed down causing Naruto to ram into my back from his momentum. We both tried to ignore the emptiness of the entire place.

As we walked past the house where Sasuke's aunt and uncle used to live, I shivered, knowing that they used to welcome Sasuke's few friends. The main house came up in the distance and we ran the last length to it.

"Sakura, wait here a moment, I want to show you what always happens when I come over here."

It wasn't odd for Naruto to want to prove the fact that he had told the truth, he had pulled my leg a couple of times before. But it made sense that Sasuke would be a little moody. His family was dead, I didn't dare think of who was said to have done it.

Naruto went up to the door and knocked a few times. A moment or two later Sasuke came to the door and slid it open. He stared at Naruto for a moment.

"Hn."

Then slammed the door in Naruto's face before he could get a word out.

"See? He doesn't even let me say anything anymore!"

Sasuke lacked his smile, the one he would have on when he knew Itachi would be coming home. Sasuke had become closed off and withdrawn. It was saddening.

"Let me try Naruto. I know what will keep this door open."

I went up to the door and knocked at it. Sasuke refused to answer. I knocked again harder this time. The door slammed open this time.

I tackled Sasuke in a hug that knocked him over and away from the doorway.

"S-Sakura?"

"Sasuke, are you alright?" I asked wondering if he might get mad at me.

I was surprised when he returned the hug even if it ever so slight to the point where Naruto couldn't notice but the way he shifted his head was acceptance enough for me.

I quickly got off him and took a closer look at him. He seemed a bit better but he still seemed upset and gave Naruto a strange glare.

"Sasuke I know you're upset but we came here to take you out for a day. I really think you should get out even if it's for a little while, it might help some." I tried to persuade Sasuke, though I knew if he didn't want to he wouldn't.

"Fine."

I grabbed Sasuke's hand pulled him out of his house, with Naruto following shortly after us. We dragged the reluctant Sasuke out of the Uchiha district and Naruto pulled us both to his favorite ramen booth, Ichiraku's.

"Naruto, if we're eating here, you're paying." I said, voicing both Sasuke's and my own thoughts.

"But Sakura-chan! My frog wallet is empty!"

"Then you shouldn't have brought us here if you weren't going to pay. Now if you don't mind, Sasuke and I are going to get something else."

Sasuke and I walked off leaving Naruto behind.

Later when we returned we found Naruto slurping down an extra large bowl of ramen. Sasuke had gotten some sort of rice ball with tomatoes while I had gotten a small bowl of tempura.

"Naruto, you didn't steal that did you?"

"Nope." Naruto punctuated with a slurp of his noodles. "Found my coupons."

"For free ramen…?" I asked suspicious.

"Yup!" He answered again with a slurp.

"Okay." I answered sitting down next to him with Sasuke on my other side. "My parents are letting me get into the Ninja Academy."

"Really? That means we could get on the same team!" Yelled Naruto.

"Hn."

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4 Years Later: At the Graduation Ceremony

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"Congratulations on graduating the Ninja Academy! You are now all considered Genin and that means you will now have new responsibilities to the village." Congratulated Iruka, our teacher. "You will now be placed on teams based off your grades."

I could only hope that I was on the same team as some one I knew.

"Team 7 is Sasuke Uchiha…"

"Hn."

Recently Sasuke was becoming less social and would talk with Naruto and I less. He seemed to reject us a little more each day.

"…Sakura Haruno…"

Being with Sasuke was fine by me as long as…

"…and Naruto Uzumaki!"

Naruto was there with us. I didn't really listen to the other teams but I was relieved my friends were here with me.

"Now, you will go to your assigned classrooms to wait for your Jounin sensei."

"Wait! Where are we supposed to go again?" I asked out loud, partly to myself.

"Sakura, we're staying here, the others are leaving to other classrooms." Answered Sasuke.

"Oh."

Sometime later…

"How long is this sensei going to take? All the other teams have met their sensei!" Yelled Naruto.

"Naruto what are you doing?" I asked watching him grab a dusty eraser from the chalkboard and a chair from a desk.

"Giving our sensei his first lesson." He replied while lodging the eraser at the top of the sliding door of our classroom.

"He's a Jounin, I don't think he'd fall for such a simple prank." Added Sasuke from his seat at the front of the classroom. He hadn't moved since we were assigned to Team 7. Naruto and I had gotten up after about an hour and Sasuke still hadn't moved.

The door slid open and the sensei walked in just as the eraser fell on top of his head. Naruto burst out laughing and even I had to suppress a small laugh. Sasuke seemed to pull off a small shocked expression at the fact he had been proved wrong.

The sensei had spiky silver hair that leaned off to one side. His face was covered by and odd mask that went only up to the bridge of his nose then sloped downwards and stopped at his jaw line. His lopsided forehead protector covered his left eye. He wore the traditional flak jacket and the rest of his clothing appeared to be black.

"My first impression of you is…I don't like you." He said. "We'll meet up on the roof." And he poofed away with a cloud of smoke.

After we all got up onto the roof we saw our sensei sitting on the railing reading an orange book. We sat in front of him on the steps.

"So…why don't you all introduce yourselves? Your names, likes, dislike, hobbies and ambitions."

"You never introduced yourself, sensei." I replied.

"Oh, so you want me to go first? Okay, my name is Kakashi Hatake. I don't feel like telling you my likes or dislikes. I have lots of hobbies and I never really thought about having ambitions."

All he told us was his name…

"You on the left…"

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki. I like cup ramen and red beans. I don't like the three-minute wait for the cup ramen. I want to surpass the Hokage and get the people of this village to acknowledge my existence…Hobbies…pranks I guess."

"Okay…next."

"I'm Sakura Haruno. I like my friends. I don't like rude people. My dream is to become someone worth something. Hobbies…reading scrolls."

"Hmm…next."

"Sasuke Uchiha. I don't have many likes and I have a lot of dislikes. I don't have a dream but an ambition…to resurrect my clan and kill a certain man…"

I could feel the coldness emanating from Sasuke…He had never been this cold before…ever…

"So far with the introductions…First thing tomorrow we will begin our duties as shinobi."

"What kind of duties?" Yelled Naruto.

"Actually we'll be doing something together, survival training. I'd suggest you don't eat breakfast tomorrow, you might throw up."

Naruto and I gulped in unison, while Sasuke stayed silent.

Tomorrow was going to be difficult if not challenging.

**Sorry for not updating in a while. Sorry for the random time skip in the middle of this story. **

**Read and review? Please?**

**Sorry for this chapter being so short…I'll try to get around to fixing the many grammatical errors in the other chapters sooner than I said last time.**

**I'm on Spring Break now so I'll have time…Anyone going to Anime Matsuri Convention? I am. You'll know who I am if you see an angry blonde dressed as Deidara (didn't feel like dying my hair to be Itachi) or an angry blonde dressed as Ed from FullMetal Alchemist.**


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 6: Kakashi's Training

I woke up in the morning with the never-ending sense of butterflies in my stomach. I knew I was nervous because I had never been on a mission before neither did I know what survival training would be like. But I could feel that it wasn't going to be the normal kind…a teacher's job was to teach and all teachers have different methods. There was something about Kakashi-sensei's voice when he said, "Actually we'll be doing something together, survival training. I'd suggest you don't eat breakfast tomorrow, you might throw up."

The way he said that single sentence was similar to how Sasori had said, "You're sure of this? My training will never be easy and I won't make it easy for you." It hinted at difficulties that weren't exactly normal course material and it wasn't. Sasori had at one point controlled one of his puppets to show me why I wasn't ready to move on to more advanced teachings, I was easily defeated and he hadn't even tried at all. Later that day I had to awkwardly explain away the new injuries to my parents before leaving again for more.

Another reason to my worries were the ideas of using the jutsus I had learned from Sasori and Itachi. I had advanced my stamina and chakra levels since I had last tried the grand fireball jutsu but I hadn't tried it recently enough to know if I had improved at all or how many times I could perform it without passing out.

I was quite sure I couldn't use any of Sasori's techniques because they were foreign and would draw suspicion to me. Especially since they were probably well-known attacks associated with Sasori, an S-ranked missing-nin, and the fact that no one in Konoha knew puppetry jutsu someone would eventually get suspicious.

I hadn't even figured out what Deidara had left me but I didn't have time to check right now.

I got out of bed and quickly got dressed in my usual dress that bore the Haruno clan symbol. I brought my weapons pouch but removed Sasori's puppet. I had just remembered if I were to use it then everyone would see Sasori's mark on it. It certainly wasn't the best idea to advertise one of your teachers had been a missing-nin.

I wasn't really sure if I should even use the Uchiha clan's Grand Fireball technique, it would probably just agitate Sasuke.

So I was basically left with only fighting skills I had learned from Itachi and Sasori, and a couple words of advice from Deidara. This was turning out to be really depressing, I hadn't gotten stronger while I was away, and I had no special jutsu to use as a trump card should we have to defend ourselves. I was just as useless as before…

I looked at my clock and realized it was about time to leave for the training fields. I considered eating breakfast but remembered Kakashi-sensei's words. I simply walked out of my house and ran to the training field.

Sasuke was already there and Naruto could be seen off in the distance running towards us. I slumped down next to Sasuke and waited for Naruto to get here.

"So what do you think this will be like? Our survival training?" I asked out loud.

"It's probably nothing the future Hokage can't handle!" Yelled Naruto.

"I don't think you need to worry too much Sakura, he isn't even here yet…" Added Sasuke in a cool tone.

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A few Hours Later…

We were all starving at this point and it was nearing midday. A small rustling sound came from behind us.

"Yo!"

"You're late Kakashi-sensei!" We all yelled together, even Sasuke.

"Well we'll begin whenever you're ready. The point of this is to retrieve these two bells before lunchtime. Those who do not retrieve a bell from me before the time period is up will not eat, and they will go back to the academy for failing. You can use any weapons you like, and I expect you to come after me with the intention to kill. Are you ready?"

"I don't think we even need to worry about you…You couldn't even dodge a chalkboard eraser!" Yelled Naruto.

"The people with no talent often bark the loudest, so let's just ignore Mr. Deadlast."

"Die old man!" Naruto had already lunged at Kakashi-sensei.

I blinked and suddenly Kakashi-sensei was already behind Naruto, holding the hand that Naruto had withdrawn a kunai with against the back of his head.

"I didn't say "go" yet. But I think I've changed my opinion of you, Naruto here came at me with the intention to kill, so I might even begin to like you guys…Begin!"

Kakashi-sensei was gone before any of us could notice and quickly after we were hiding too.

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Kakashi-sensei had easily defeated Naruto's clones and had trapped him repeatedly with the same bell trap. Though Sasuke's shuriken attack had landed on Kakashi-sensei it was revealed to be a simple replacement technique. I had seen Sasuke dash by as he went to hide before Kakashi found him, though I think if Kakashi-sensei was really trying to get us we would all be stuck in some sort of trap by now.

I realized if Kakashi were targeting Sasuke now that Naruto was in a trap, wouldn't he see me? Sasuke had dashed by earlier and if he were followed wouldn't someone with obviously superior skills see me trying to hide here?

I wasn't physically strong and some many incidents involving Ami and someone else always having to save me from her proved that. I wouldn't be able to defend myself should Kakashi-sensei find me.

I quickly looked around in hopes of possibly seeing him dash by before it was too late but I didn't see anyone. Then Kakashi-sensei's voice came from behind me.

"Behind you, Sakura."

I foolishly turned to look in hopes of defending myself, but as soon as I made eye contact he disappeared again. I looked around again and saw no trace of him. But why would he do that if he had the opportunity to attack? It just didn't make sense.

"Sakura…"

I turned to follow Sasuke's moan this time, hoping he was okay. As soon as I turned around I saw Sasuke on the ground, his legs twisted and broken, kunais jutting from his skin, the glint of a bone or two and blood everywhere. It was horrid…

'_How could the sensei do this to Sasuke? This was survival training but this is too much!'_

"Sakura…help me…" He moaned again.

I wanted to do something but I couldn't move. It was terrifying, I couldn't understand why Kakashi-sensei would go so far on Sasuke and only use a simple trap on Naruto. I couldn't help but wonder what would happen to me…

_Wait! That's it! All he did to Naruto was a simple trap. He had said something about taijutsu… This could be genjutsu!_

"Kai!"

Suddenly the world wavered and then clarified it had only been a genjutsu but that didn't mean I was safe now. But where was Sasuke? I had seen him run by earlier but if I had been easily disposed of by means of genjutsu then Kakashi-sensei was attacking Sasuke!

I ran in the direction that I had Sasuke run in earlier and soon came across the two of them in a stare down. I hid in the bushes to watch for an opening. Sasuke had already begun his attack, but Kakashi had caught his first kick, the punch and his other leg, Sasuke was merely hanging upside down at this point.

Then he suddenly made a grab for the bells and was thrown away before he could grasp them.

Kakashi was fully distracted and I jumped out realizing this was my chance.

Suddenly flames filled the air, as two fireballs soared closer to each other with Kakashi-sensei in-between. I had performed the Grand Fireball technique without realizing it. My fireball collided with Sasuke's larger one, trapping Kakashi-sensei inside the roaring flames.

As ash fell down, I found Sasuke staring shocked at me, and as I stared back; we had both performed the same jutsu simultaneously. Quickly we realized Kakashi was no longer there and we could hear a faint ringing across the field from where we had started. Time was up and none of us had gotten a bell.

"Sasuke, I don't really think he has the power to send us back to the academy. We can always try again."

"Sakura, I don't care about the academy, I've sworn to kill that man. I can't go back."

Immediately I knew whom he was talking about, Itachi, his own brother, I had known that people said that he was the one to have killed the Uchiha clan but I had trouble believing them. I had seen Itachi only a few months ago, and had trusted him to have reasons, good reasons, to do so if he really did it. But still in my mind it was too hard to accept it as a solid fact.

We had made it back to the starting point by then, Naruto was tied to a log with two bentos sitting in front of him. Sasuke and I moved to sit on either side of him waiting for news of our failure.

"Well there's no need for you guys to go back to the academy…"

_It can't be that good…we couldn't have passed…_

"…I believe you should quit as shinobi."

"What? You never said anything about completely quitting!"

"You didn't pass the test, you didn't even get close, and I don't think you should be let off with just returning to the academy just to try again another time."

"What's that's supposed to mean?" Yelled Naruto.

"You don't deserve to be ninjas."

That last sentence seemed to be the one that really set Sasuke off. He lunged at Kakashi-sensei, much like how Naruto had done in the beginning and was easily pinned down by Kakashi-sensei.

"I don't think you understand what ninjas are. You didn't even understand the meaning of this test. Why do you think you were split up into teams of three, and given this survival training?"

"What do you mean Kakashi-sensei?" I asked wondering what he was trying to get at.

"Teamwork! If you had worked together you might have gotten the bells. Instead you all split up and worked separately."

"But there's only two bells, one of us would've still been punished and sent back to the academy!"

"That's the point, you're supposed to set aside selfish goals and work together for the mission's success. This test was designed to make you realize that you wouldn't be able to work alone and succeed, instead you would have to make sacrifices for one another to help each other. On real missions, you will be faced with difficult decisions that you can't face alone! You, Naruto, tried to defeat me using strength alone and never tried to help. Sakura, you focused on Sasuke alone when Naruto was still stuck in my trap much closer to you than Sasuke was. Sasuke, you tried to take me on alone simply because you believed the others would slow you down, you were close to succeeding when Sakura jumped in to help but you didn't realize that yourself earlier when you were all together. That is why none of you should become ninja!"

"Then give us another chance!" Shouted Naruto.

"Fine." Kakashi-sensei answered as he got off Sasuke. "Eat. But don't give any to Naruto. If you do you will all fail, and never become ninjas. Remember I am the rules here." He continued as he walked off.

As soon as Kakashi-sensei left Sasuke immediately offered his food to Naruto, I saw what he had in mind and offered mine too. Sasuke refused and handed over his lunch instead. I hesitated though when it came to feeding Naruto. Sasuke saw this and replied:

"Sakura its fine, Kakashi has left the area he can't tell from the distance he's at. Any Naruto needs it more, he'll only slow us down if he's hungry."

Suddenly my nerves were soothed and I continued my efforts to help my team, I had not done anything successfully so I was determined to at least do this.

But as soon as the first clump of rice was in Naruto's mouth, Kakashi-sensei had reappeared accompanied with wind and thunder.

"You all…pass." Suddenly the day returned to normal, gentle breezes and sunshine.

"Us?"

"But why?"

"All the others would just do what I told them to do, they refused to see underneath the underneath. Those who break the rules and codes of the ninja world are called trash, but those who don't care for their comrades are worse than trash. You can go home now, the real missions begin tomorrow."

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Kakashi's POV

These kids certainly are interesting…Naruto's a bit of a dunce but he certainly has skill in making his shadow clones. Sasuke seems to be trying to be making up for something…he's a lot more advanced then the average genin in terms of chakra control but he seems to tire slightly after using his grand fireball technique. It's what one would expect from an Uchiha child. But Sakura, she performed the same technique and fell to about the same level of exhaustion; she seems to be able to recognize genjutsu fairly well too. But the grand fireball technique is supposed to be exclusive to the Uchiha family, in fact it's supposed to be a rite of passage into adulthood within the clan. How would she know the technique? Unless a clan member had personally taught her? She seems to be the book type, maybe she had read a description somewhere? No. A clan member taught her, the Uchihas had been too paranoid to even think of ever leaving even a basic signature jutsu on paper. The only person I could think of doing such a thing would be…

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**Finally done. Not a super chapter in fact it might be the shortest I've ever written but I'm doing this while studying for finals. You can't blame me, I almost failed math first semester I can't fail again.**

**I've decided to do the festival chapter eventually…Please read and review. Thank you.**


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